Technology to boot out child labour from mica belt

The two-member NCPCR team, comprising Kanoongo and Yashwant Jain, also warned mica traders that they could be prosecuted as employers under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, if caught buying the mineral from a minor.Nergish Sunavala | TNN | Updated: June 21, 2016, 08:38 IST

Technology might soon play a role in ending child labour in India's mica belt and getting kids enrolled in school. After surveying Jharkhand's Koderma and Giridih districts -- where illegal mining is rampant and children work alongside their parents to put food on the table -- members of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) suggested that attendance in one Koderma school be monitored.

"We have told the district collector that we would like to do a pilot project where we track attendance digitally," says Priyank Kanoongo from the NCPCR. "We are a monitoring authority, so if the model is successful, we can suggest that it be implemented in other places," he said.

The two-member NCPCR team, comprising Kanoongo and Yashwant Jain, also warned mica traders that they could be prosecuted as employers under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, if caught buying the mineral from a minor. "One high court judgment defined child labour as employing a child for monetary gain, which is what is happening when children gather mica scraps and sell them to local dealers."

NCPCR visited Jharkhand last weekend following media reports highlighting the issue including one published in TOI in April -- 'The lost childhood of India's mica minors'. While in Koderma, NCPCR representatives attended 'Bal Samvad' (Children's Voice), a programme organized by Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), an NGO working to rescue children from this industry since 2005.

The event -- planned to coincide with World Day Against Child Labour on June 12 -- was attended by members of the Jharkhand State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (JSCPCR), the district collector, education officer, block development officers, gram panchayet members, and over 1,000 mica mine workers and their children from across 150 villages.

While NCPCR doesn't have accurate data, BBA estimates that about 60,000 children are at risk of being inducted into the mica trade.The NGO, founded by Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi, has managed to root out child labour in 105 'Bal Mitra Grams' by helping families supplement their incomes through government schemes.

One of their success stories is Ranjit Kumar, a former child labourer, who was recently elected 'sarpanch' of his village's first 'Bal Panchayat'. Kumar questioned officials about the appalling condition of government schools--a school built in 2008 is still to get a roof--and implored the state to take concrete steps to extract children from the mica trade.

"I was lucky enough to escape and go to school," said the teenager, who recalls being trapped underground when a mine he was working in collapsed. "But what about the thousands of children like me still working in the mines?"